Bloggergate: Dan Maes’ Latest Controversy

Are some Republicans so desperate to see Dan Maes leave the governor’s race that they’d bribe him to drop out? Conservative activist Joseph Harrington, a Maes supporter, tells The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels he was approached by a “well-known blogger, two metro-Denver-area GOP county chairs, two senior operatives for Tom Tancredo,” and others to offer Maes a “bunch of money”—funneled from an unnamed donor—to abandon the race.

After Harrington made the allegations, Ross Kaminsky took to his Rossputin blog to out himself as the “well-known blogger” and deny the charges. Such an arrangement—which would seemingly benefit American Constitution Party candidate Tancredo, Kaminsky’s own choice for governor—could be considered illegal, reports the Denver Daily News.

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Political blogger Ben DeGrow wades into the fray with an e-mail trail defending Kaminsky’s take, writing that “evidence indicates any deal-seeking came from” the Maes camp. But Colorado Ethics Watch doesn’t want the matter to be settled by bloggers. The group is looking into the “convoluted controversy,” writes The Colorado Independent, and wants Maes to disclose any information he might have about illegal offers to drop out of the race.

Meanwhile, The Atlantic’s politics editor takes a look at the “quirk” and “zeal” of the governor’s race, writing of Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper, “Ironically, in a year when voters seem to hate anyone who has ever been elected to anything, Hickenlooper’s greatest strength will be his record as Denver’s mayor.”